Pendlebury: It’s about getting it right when they are still young

BEN JAYCOCK

England U18s have embarked on their second training camp in quick succession as their tight five forwards group was followed by a 40-player October development at Bisham Abbey this weekend.

Last month saw head coach Jonathan Pendlebury provide his set of young promising players with a grounding in the principles that prepare players for being part of the senior set-up, and to give them some position-specific coaching, as well as the technical demands of the front five.

Pendlebury and his team reconvened in Berkshire on Thursday for a campaign curtain-raiser this half-term involving players selected from all four RFU centralised academies, as well as nine Premiership academies.

Following on from the success of the tight five camp, Pendlebury says it allows him to add detail to players games and provide the attention they need to grow into improved high-quality rugnBy by players, while also implementing their style at an early age. He told The Rugby Paper: “We're trying to push our themes of playing with speed, playing with attachment while finding and exploiting space to score and get the ball back.

Young talent: Jack Bracken is in the England U18s squad

PIC: Getty Images

“It was brilliant in terms of what we were able to explore. School coaches often try to fit everything into a 60-minute session which is unachievable. Every coach wants more time with players. Steve Borthwick wants more time with players, just the same as I want more time with the England U18s or my Hinckley U9s on a Sunday morning.

“We spent Friday morning on lineouts, Saturday on scrums and Sunday morning on decision making in attack and defence. That was brilliant for us as we added education and learning. We've got specialist staff in all the key areas that can concentrate on their area. It's about how we bring it all together.”

Pendlebury explains that the camps are led on the group's fundamentals of exploration, adaptation and levelling up using on-field activities in units and in-game scenarios. He added: “Like any talent pathway, you've got the best in the country at that sport, with Steve Borthwick and Owen Farrell at the top of ours. At the bottom you've got a wider base with introduction to rugby and all the laws. Some might play for their school and club and then get opportunities to go into player programmes or county level, so they might train a bit more to get into academies. The pathway is wide at the bottom and gets narrow at the top as players want to challenge themselves.

“It's then about adapting. You might be young physically and maturity wise so it's about adapting to law variations. Just because you're 18 and you can vote and you're considered an adult, it doesn't necessarily mean you're a senior player in that environment until you're 21. Right at the top of the tree, Steve Borthwick and (women's head coach) John Mitchell are in charge of winning rugby matches and championships. So, it's about winning at the top and then further down we're focused on the willing to explore.”

A range of clubs and backgrounds are represented among the 40-player squad, and Pendl ebury says it provides players with a chance to meet fellow players in their position for them to learn off and build bonds at such a young age.

He said: “We've got young people here from all over the country, some have only known their local regional area because they've grown up there and haven't ventured much out of it, others have maybe moved to different parts of the country for school or college and some have had the opportunity to go out the country and play.

In charge: Jonathan Pendlebury, head coach of England U18s

“Young lads when they come in have a look around to see who's in my position and they get to know each other and think ‘he's my competition but he's all right', or they might not necessarily be the best of friends but it's good healthy competition. They end up playing each other on the circuit for school or college quite regularly, so they get to know each other that way as well.”

The RFU have focused on building a ‘Club England' with a stronger alignment throughout the pathways and Pend-lebury says he's regularly in contact with senior head coach Steve Borthwick and U20s boss Mark Mapletoft.

He said: “It's exciting. Steve (Borthwick) spoke to me straight after the South Africa game. He was disappointed in terms of the result but was proud of where the guys had got to.

“He's pleased with how young some of them are, you've got some players that are between 10-20 caps, other guys who've got 20-30. That's quite young in terms of international experience. He's got seven players around 24-25, so are going to be under 30 for the next World Cup at the peak for a male rugby player. Steve has had a massive job and will be reviewing the players he's got and understanding players from U20s that Mark (Mapletoft) will be working with and then the ones underneath that Will and I are in charge of that are still in full-time education.

“We have meetings discussing what we want England to look like going forward. It's about winning Six Nations, Autumn internationals going into World Cups in the future.”